12,999 research outputs found
Singularity Theory in Classical Cosmology
This paper compares recent approaches appearing in the literature on the
singularity problem for space-times with nonvanishing torsion.Comment: 4 pages, plain-tex, published in Nuovo Cimento B, volume 107, pages
849-851, year 199
Hydrodynamic limit of asymmetric exclusion processes under diffusive scaling in
We consider the asymmetric exclusion process. We start from a profile which
is constant along the drift direction and prove that the density profile, under
a diffusive rescaling of time, converges to the solution of a parabolic
equation
Time-dependent spherically symmetric covariant Galileons
We study spherically symmetric solutions of the cubic covariant Galileon
model in curved spacetime in presence of a matter source, in the test scalar
field approximation. We show that a cosmological time evolution of the Galileon
field gives rise to an induced matter-scalar coupling, due to the
Galileon-graviton kinetic braiding, therefore the solution for the Galileon
field is non trivial even if the bare matter-scalar coupling constant is set to
zero. The local solution crucially depends on the asymptotic boundary
conditions, and in particular, Minkowski and de Sitter asymptotics correspond
to different branches of the solution. We study the stability of these
solutions, namely, the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem and the positivity
of energy for scalar and tensor perturbations, by diagonalizing the kinetic
terms of the spin-2 and spin-0 degrees of freedom. In addition, we find that in
presence of a cosmological time evolution of the Galileon field, its kinetic
mixing with the graviton leads to a friction force, resulting to efficient
damping of scalar perturbations within matter.Comment: 20 pages, no figure, RevTeX4 format; v2: minor changes reflecting the
published version in PR
On the Zero-Point Energy of a Conducting Spherical Shell
The zero-point energy of a conducting spherical shell is evaluated by
imposing boundary conditions on the potential, and on the ghost fields. The
scheme requires that temporal and tangential components of perturbations of the
potential should vanish at the boundary, jointly with the gauge-averaging
functional, first chosen of the Lorenz type. Gauge invariance of such boundary
conditions is then obtained provided that the ghost fields vanish at the
boundary. Normal and longitudinal modes of the potential obey an entangled
system of eigenvalue equations, whose solution is a linear combination of
Bessel functions under the above assumptions, and with the help of the Feynman
choice for a dimensionless gauge parameter. Interestingly, ghost modes cancel
exactly the contribution to the Casimir energy resulting from transverse and
temporal modes of the potential, jointly with the decoupled normal mode of the
potential. Moreover, normal and longitudinal components of the potential for
the interior and the exterior problem give a result in complete agreement with
the one first found by Boyer, who studied instead boundary conditions involving
TE and TM modes of the electromagnetic field. The coupled eigenvalue equations
for perturbative modes of the potential are also analyzed in the axial gauge,
and for arbitrary values of the gauge parameter. The set of modes which
contribute to the Casimir energy is then drastically changed, and comparison
with the case of a flat boundary sheds some light on the key features of the
Casimir energy in non-covariant gauges.Comment: 29 pages, Revtex, revised version. In this last version, a new
section has been added, devoted to the zero-point energy of a conducting
spherical shell in the axial gauge. A second appendix has also been include
Constraints on Shift-Symmetric Scalar-Tensor Theories with a Vainshtein Mechanism from Bounds on the Time Variation of G
We show that the current bounds on the time variation of the Newton constant
G can put severe constraints on many interesting scalar-tensor theories which
possess a shift symmetry and a nonminimal matter-scalar coupling. This
includes, in particular, Galileon-like models with a Vainshtein screening
mechanism. We underline that this mechanism, if efficient to hide the effects
of the scalar field at short distance and in the static approximation, can in
general not alter the cosmological time evolution of the scalar field. This
results in a locally measured time variation of G which is too large when the
matter-scalar coupling is of order one.Comment: RevTeX4 format; v.2: 5 pages, title changed, matches published
versio
Heat kernel coefficients for chiral bag boundary conditions
We study the asymptotic expansion of the smeared L2-trace of fexp(-tP^2)
where P is an operator of Dirac type, f is an auxiliary smooth smearing
function which is used to localize the problem, and chiral bag boundary
conditions are imposed. Special case calculations, functorial methods and the
theory of zeta and eta invariants are used to obtain the boundary part of the
heat-kernel coefficients a1 and a2.Comment: Published in J. Phys. A38, 2259-2276 (2005). Record without file
already exists on the SLAC recor
Spectral asymptotics of Euclidean quantum gravity with diff-invariant boundary conditions
A general method is known to exist for studying Abelian and non-Abelian gauge
theories, as well as Euclidean quantum gravity, at one-loop level on manifolds
with boundary. In the latter case, boundary conditions on metric perturbations
h can be chosen to be completely invariant under infinitesimal diffeomorphisms,
to preserve the invariance group of the theory and BRST symmetry. In the de
Donder gauge, however, the resulting boundary-value problem for the Laplace
type operator acting on h is known to be self-adjoint but not strongly
elliptic. The latter is a technical condition ensuring that a unique smooth
solution of the boundary-value problem exists, which implies, in turn, that the
global heat-kernel asymptotics yielding one-loop divergences and one-loop
effective action actually exists. The present paper shows that, on the
Euclidean four-ball, only the scalar part of perturbative modes for quantum
gravity are affected by the lack of strong ellipticity. Further evidence for
lack of strong ellipticity, from an analytic point of view, is therefore
obtained. Interestingly, three sectors of the scalar-perturbation problem
remain elliptic, while lack of strong ellipticity is confined to the remaining
fourth sector. The integral representation of the resulting zeta-function
asymptotics is also obtained; this remains regular at the origin by virtue of a
spectral identity here obtained for the first time.Comment: 25 pages, Revtex-4. Misprints in Eqs. (5.11), (5.14), (5.16) have
been correcte
Thermoelectric efficiency at maximum power in a quantum dot
We identify the operational conditions for maximum power of a
nanothermoelectric engine consisting of a single quantum level embedded between
two leads at different temperatures and chemical potentials. The corresponding
thermodynamic efficiency agrees with the Curzon-Ahlborn expression up to
quadratic terms in the gradients, supporting the thesis of universality beyond
linear response.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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